‘Millie,’ Thoroughly Close

In today’s colossus-versus-gnat commercial theater arena, is there room for a deft, swift, good-dumb musical comedy, middleweight division? Or a musical comedy well within reach, at least, of those elusive virtues?

These are the questions facing “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” a freely adapted stage incarnation of the 1967 Julie Andrews film vehicle, which opened a Broadway-minded tryout Sunday at the La Jolla Playhouse.

At present the show’s about two-thirds satisfying. It takes a while to find its pace (and some jokes), and to develop a personality to call its own. The show’s dogged collaborators haven’t even begun to solve the final 20 minutes or so.

But there’s a lot to like in director Michael Mayer’s treatment of 1922 Manhattan, a kingdom inhabited by a cast of 27, ruled by jazz and jangle and merry defiance of the Volstead Act.

With co-librettist and lyricist Dick Scanlan, talented composer Jeanine Tesori has written six new songs, bright and snappy, well-attuned to the spirit of the film’s Jimmy Van Heusen-Sammy Cahn title number. Tesori’s work must fight for attention amid the show’s multi-source polyglot score, interpolating everything from Victor Herbert to Gilbert & Sullivan. Tesori’s best deserves full attention, making good on the promise of her score for the musical “Violet.”

As Millie, Sutton Foster--the former understudy who replaced Erin Dilly days before previews began, and who shared the Playhouse stage during one preview with a plummeting mirror ball--acquits herself very nicely. This world premiere’s development has seen its ups and downs. For a while there, it was looking like “Thoroughly Modern Macbeth” or, for the superstitious, “the flapper play.” No problems on opening night, though, in terms of technical and performance skill. The problems inherent in the material are another matter, but not an unsolvable one.

I suspect “Millie,” clocking in at a shorter-than-average two hours and 15 minutes, will play better with those who never saw the film, or can’t remember much about it except that titular ditty. (Say that carefully, now.) As the Kansas-raised stenographer loose in Manhattan and determined to nail her boss for a beau, Julie Andrews (right, she’s from Kansas) proved charming as ever. But for some of us the film’s charm screeched to a halt right there.

Coming off “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music,” Andrews was Ms. Big in Hollywood musicals. Universal Pictures wanted Andrews to star in a film version of “The Boy Friend,” the ‘20s spoof that brought Andrews to Broadway way back in 1954. The rights were unavailable, however, and the replacement project turned out to be “Millie,” written by Richard Morris. Its coy little story line became bloated as the running time blew up to fill its road-show presentation length. In effect, director George Roy Hill and company were forced to use every inch of film they shot, which explains the film’s strange, underwater pacing. I feel like I’m still watching it.

The movie’s heroine is a ninny who runs afoul of a white-slavery operation run by boarding-house manager Mrs. Meers, and characters referred to as “Oriental One” and “Oriental Two.” (Pat Morita and the late Jack Soo could have sued for defamation.) The stage “Millie” goes its own way, changing plot particulars and much more.

By way of a cinematic iris-shot effect, we’re introduced at the top to Millie Dillmount (Foster), the sheltered heiress-turned-actress Dorothy Brown (Sarah Uriarte Berry) and the newly expanded Chinese henchmen, Ching Ho (Stephen Sable) and Bun Foo (Francis Jue). The song they share is the old standard “There’ll Be Some Changes Made,” with tweaked and added lyrics by Scanlan. This works well enough, as does a Mandarin version of the Jolson signature tune, “My Mammy” (that’s all you need to know). Other interpolations merely get in the way, especially the Gilbert & Sullivan “Ruddigore” patter song “My Eyes Are Fully Open,” revamped as a dictation exercise for Millie and her boss, Trevor Graydon (the very funny Marc Kudisch, straight out of John Held’s caricatures).

Ms. Dillmount’s entry into corporate Manhattan recalls an earlier Playhouse Broadway tryout, the Des McAnuff-directed “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” There’s a fair bit of singing and dancing typists, for one thing. (Foster leads the female steno pool in an invigorating Act 2 opener, “Forget About the Boy,” destined for many drag acts to come.) The look of this show recalls “H2$” as well. Mayer’s cast darts here and there on scenic designer David Gallo’s witty, attractive chrome-tinged unit set, all girders and Constructivist angles. There’s room to dance on it, too. Choreographer Rob Ashford (frequent assistant to Kathleen Marshall, one of the best) keeps the transitional activity bustling.

Often, frustratingly, the show’s less successful in its delivery of the big showcase moments. The madcap millionairess Muzzy, played by Carol Channing in the film, is here re-imagined as a Josephine Baker nightclub performer. Tonya Pinkins does well enough with it, but she never really enters the story, and her material’s forgettable. The same goes for Pat Carroll’s villainess Mrs. Meers, stuck with exactly one running gag.

By the time “Millie” gets around to its Chinese-laundry climax, it loses its way. The authors go a long, long way to correct the movie’s offensive stereotypes. (Dorothy Brown ends up not with Graydon, but with Meers’ good-guy-underneath henchman.) But the climax fizzles. You want a “High Button Shoes” choreographed chase, or something.

On the plus side, the characters of Millie and her peppy suitor Jimmy Smith (Michael Malone, solid and charming) have been given some actual human traits in this version. They’re adults, at least, rather than the adolescent pups the movie offered.

The workshop version of “Millie” preceding this version starred Kristin Chenoweth and Bea Arthur. That casting got a lot of this show’s buzz going. The current cast, quite good in many respects, isn’t on the same level. Performers aside: Tesori’s music is flavorsome enough--”Say That” harks back to DeSylva, Brown and Henderson’s “Just Imagine” from the flapper-era “Good News”--to make you wish the score weren’t so reliant on standards. Everything, however, sounds great in the orchestrations of the peerless Ralph Burns.

It is not a show out to eat you alive. For that, I’m grateful. The reasons for the very existence of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” go back to Sandy Wilson’s “The Boy Friend,” and the feathery, tuneful brainlessness of that ‘20s valentine is what director Mayer and his cohorts want for their tale.

A lot of the time, they capture it. Good-dumb is hard. If “Millie” can sharpen its sense of verbal wit (both in the book and lyrics) and figure out what to do with the ending, the girl from Kansas might find success in Gotham and beyond after all.

* “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” La Jolla Playhouse, UC San Diego, La Jolla Village Drive at Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 19. $36-$69. (858) 550-1010 or https://www.lajollaplayhouse.com. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Sutton Foster: Millie Dillmount

Sarah Uriarte Berry: Dorothy Brown

Stephen Sable: Ching Ho

Francis Jue: Bun Foo

Pat Carroll: Mrs. Meers

Jim Stanek: Jimmy Smith

Anne L. Nathan: Miss Flannery

Marc Kudisch: Trevor Graydon

Tonya Pinkins: Muzzy

Book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan. New music and lyrics by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan. Directed by Michael Mayer. Choreography by Rob Ashford. Musical director Michael Rafter. Orchestrations Ralph Burns. Scenic design by David Gallo. Costumes by Robert Perdziola. Lighting by Donald Holder. Sound by Otts Munderloh. Production stage manager Bonnie L. Becker.